Megaphone’s real name was Yuu. Even amongst the Arcane, he was an oddity. This was because he was a halfling—an Arcane with parents who were different species. Interspecies relationships were… frowned upon and having children with different species was nearing taboo.
This was the type of racism and discrimination that existed in the world of Arcane.
Yuu himself was a siren-Uwabami hybrid, born from infidelity and lust. Neither of his parents had wanted him, which was fair because honestly? Yuito wouldn’t want himself either if he had a choice in it.
They’d tried to kill him, you know. His parents, that is. Sugar—Hinode, he insisted that Yuu call him because they were friends not enemies—had saved him, all those thousands of years ago. Both of them had been young and foolish and naïve, but Hinode still had had power in his hands that any (sane) Arcane cowered at.
Hinode had saved Yuu, and so Yuu had stuck by the kitsune ever since. He knew things most Arcane didn’t know about the illusive Investigator, and that included knowledge about Hinode’s dead lover.
They’d been out that day, laughing and playing by the ocean’s shore. Hinode had been trying to convince Yuu to confess to Basile (just Investigator Chameleon back then). All of a sudden, Hinode had gone… still. Quiet. Almost eerily so. Then he’d taken off like a comet, back towards the mountains, leaving Yuu confused and more than a little worried. He’d given chase.
When Yuu managed to catch up to his friend, Hinode had been on his knees, sobbing as he clutched at a tattered haori with President and his Council standing there, just looking.
Yuu wasn’t stupid. He saw the signs of a fight, the Seal of the Heavens burnt freshly into the ground, and the haori that Yuu knew belonged to Yugure-sama. Yuu figured out as horror crept up and over the back of his neck and down his spine, that President had killed and scattered Yugure-sama’s Energy Condensation.
At that moment, he had never hated anyone more than the hummingbird spirit and his Council.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Yugure-sama had been a kind—kind—dragon. He hadn’t minded at all that Hinode’s best friend was a hybrid, and he’d even given him shelter and introduced Yuu to Basil. He’d made Hinode happy, so very happy, and now he was gone. Never able to reincarnate.
Lbkfnfg, Tee jirb xcfk atlr:
Hinode’s relationship with Yugure-sama would be both their ends, and some part of Yuu was glad that Yugure-sama was gone. Yuu had felt like throwing up when he realized that and shoved the feeling away with hate for himself bubbling inside his stomach.
All of this, added up, meant that Yuu wasn’t sure what to think when Yugure-sama’s reincarnation (?) appeared. On one hand, he was happy for Hinode. Yuu had seen first-hand what Yugure’s death had done to his friend. Hinode had withered away like a bloom in winter—arrived too early and left too soon, frosting over, and vanishing into the dirt. It’d only been a few thousand years since Hinode had started perking up a bit.
Rbk, Tee kjrc’a mfgajlc bo atf qjat jtfjv.
Qbeiv Llcbvf ojii yjmx lcab tlr yjv tjylar? Qbeiv tf reoofg jujlc? Qbeiv atja qfgrbc’r qgbqtfms bo Llcbvf jcv Teuegf-rjwj’r vfjat gfjiis mbwf agef? Qjr atja tewjc fnfc atf mbggfma Teuegf-rjwj? Po rb, tbk kjr atja qbrrlyif?
So many questions and no answers to be found.
***
“Now, if that’s all, we need to continue,” Hinode said coolly, pointing at the files. He crushed the orb in his hand and instantly, a pale green barrier swept up around them. “The pile on the left are the red herrings and false leads. The pile on the right are the things that might actually help us.”
The pile on the right was noticeably smaller than the pile on the left. Whereas the false pile had maybe ninety-five percent of the original stack, the right had the remaining five percent, if even that. Smith pointed this out and Hinode nodded. “That’s to be expected. The Malevolent doesn’t want us to solve its case, after all.”
That NPC, the one deleted, has been deleted for a while now. Its body was cold, as I think you noticed when you checked it as well. The real method of murder wasn’t covered up to be a real cover up. Anyone would notice its ‘twisted’ neck was too damaged to be natural.”
Smith looked vaguely uncomfortable at Hinode’s cold words for the humanoid but bit her tongue.
“It looked like it was done by a professional. Rather kind as well,” Hinode said thoughtfully. “The throat was slit to kill the body and the brain stem sliced so it wouldn’t watch its blood pool around it. If it was alive, of course. Hm, are any of the NPCs surgeons?”
“I don’t—maybe?” Smith tried.
Hinode’s thoughts began to wander as he hummed. “Yes… that one. The one with orange hair. Definitely a surgeon, or something close to it. Has the hands for it, as well as the sleep deprived look, though that’s not personal to just surgeons.”
“What’s being a doctor have to do with anything?”
“Scalpel. Easy to hide, but slices through flesh easily enough. The unsealed drain in the bathroom would be explained as well. The gaps were too small for a scalpel to fit through, but it’s easy enough to unseal with the right tools.”
“There weren’t any signs of a struggle, though, and the bedsheets and pillows were clean. How do you explain that?” Smith didn’t seem to mean it in a rude way but instead seemed genuinely curious.
“It’s either the Case fucking with me—it does that sometimes; sabotage, I mean—or that broken neck isn’t just for show. However, you also can’t afford to forget that the natural laws of physics and logic don’t necessarily apply in a Case.”
“And the killer behind Lord M’s murder?” Smith asked. “Is that murder’s killer and this one’s the same person?”
“Oh, no. Didn’t I mention it? That NPC who was deleted was offed because of other reasons. Probably, another NPC here had a grudge against it. The diary proclaiming it’d figured the Case out was a false lead. A closer look would reveal its fake.”
Smith looked like she was having a headache, which was reasonable as headaches usually arrived whenever Hinode was around. Everyone said so. She sighed and asked, “Why didn’t you tell me this earlier?”
“Who knows?” Hinode says.
He carefully does not say, ‘Because neither of us would be able to do anything right now, anyway’ because he is the best. He can and will solve this Case. It just… might take a bit longer than usual, that’s all.
***
The Arcane is dead.
Yugure’s lips thinned and whitened as he stared at the body. It’d been made clear from previous tests (sacrifices) and the briefing that once you died in this game world you’d be dead in the real one. Unfortunately for Investigator Peaches, he was dead.
This was an unprecedented event: an Arcane dying before a human in a Case.
(Though, in Yugure’s case, could he really be called a human?)
Ok, Good Luck!!!
I’m going to miss the sweet sugar fox. Really hope everything goes well for you, so we can enjoy your sweet fluffy story again. I’m gonna wait patiently for good news. 😘
Good luuck!! I’ll be waiting for the next updates impatiently 😌
Don’t worry about it! This one has waited once for 4 months for a story to update 😅
Good luck! Waiting patiently
Don’t worry, real life always comes first~
Good luck and remember to take care of yourself!!
good luck!
Take your time. RL comes first. Good luck!